Dow 30, Dow shmirty. These three stocks have outperformed the blue chips since they were booted from the Dow.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Paul R. La Monica. Other than Time Warner, the parent of CNNMoney, Abbott Laboratories and AbbVie, La Monica does not own positions in any individual stocks.

There are only 30 stocks in the Dow. It's an exclusive club. So you'd think that getting kicked out of the Dow would be a bad sign for a company.

But that hasn't been the case for the three companies given the boot from the Dow last year.

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Alcoa (AA) and Bank of America (BAC) have all outperformed the Dow since they left it.

Shares of Hewlett-Packard , which is in the news today after announcing it would split into two companies, are up more than 60% since it was told to not let the Dow door hit it on the way out in September 2013.

BofA is up about 20%. That puts it on par with the two financials that were added to the Dow 30 last year ... investment bank Goldman Sachs (GS) and credit card processing giant Visa (V).

Nike (NKE) was the other new Dow stock of 2013. And it's the best of that bunch. It's up 40% and recently hit an all-time high following stellar earnings.

But the true standout is Alcoa. The stock has nearly doubled.

Alcoa has benefited from rising demand for aluminum. It also is a winner from Ford's (F) decision to use aluminum for the body of its latest F-150 truck. That should make the vehicle lighter and more fuel efficient.

And even though Alcoa should no longer be considered the official start to the earnings reporting period (out of respect for my colleague Mark Meinero, I will not use the term "season" since I know it's a pet peeve of his) some investors will still try and make Alcoa's earnings into something bigger than they really are out of sheer habit. (Sorry Catherine Tymkiw!)

Now does this mean that getting removed from the Dow is actually the cause of Alcoa's outperformance? Of course not.

It will be interesting to see if Alcoa, BofA and HP (or the HPs post split) can continue to do this well over the long haul. After all, they were removed with good reason. They were no longer as representative of the U.S. economy and stock market.

And there are plenty of examples of companies that were given the old heave-ho from the Dow and have languished since then. Citigroup (C) has lagged the Dow since it was given its walking papers in 2009. AIG (AIG) will probably never return to the heights it was at before the 2008 financial crisis caused it to be kicked out of the Dow.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Paul R. La Monica. Other than Time Warner, the parent of CNNMoney, Abbott Laboratories and AbbVie, La Monica does not own positions in any individual stocks.

It's a bird. It's a plane. It's Meg Whitman!

Yes, it may be time to compare the Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) CEO to the man (and woman) of steel. After all, the stock is up 16% so far MORE

Searching for stocks that are likely to thrive in 2014? If recent history is a guide, one place to look is among shares that are badly lagging the S&P 500 this year.

Best Buy (BBY) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), after all, are soaring after being among the biggest losers last year. (Full disclosure: I recommended dumping HP in the January/February issue.) In 2012, Bank MORE

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Paul R. La Monica. Other than Time Warner, the parent of CNNMoney, Abbott Laboratories and AbbVie, La Monica does not own positions in any individual stocks.

In a twist on the famous quote by Antony in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, I come to praise tech, not to bury it.

There's been a lot of talk lately about how big tech companies are doing MORE

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Paul R. La Monica. Other than Time Warner, the parent of CNNMoney, Abbott Laboratories and AbbVie, La Monica does not own positions in any individual stocks.

This column is not about what the Federal Reserve is going to do next or the future of Fed chair Ben Bernanke. Capisce?

Investors have blinders (not referring to former Fed vice chair Alan) on right MORE

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Paul R. La Monica. Other than Time Warner, the parent of CNNMoney, Abbott Laboratories and AbbVie, La Monica does not own positions in any individual stocks.

Just call Microsoft the Seattle Not-So SuperSonics.

Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer is part of a group that may buy the NBA's Sacramento Kings and bring professional basketball back to the Emerald City. But hoops-starved fans MORE

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Paul R. La Monica. Other than Time Warner, the parent of CNNMoney, and Abbott Laboratories, La Monica does not own positions in any individual stocks.

My first reaction upon hearing the rumor Monday about Carl Icahn supposedly considering a stake in Hewlett-Packard was this: What took him so long?

HP (HPQ) has been a slow-motion train wreck for a while now. Shares MORE

Investors continued to punish Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) Thursday, a day after the company issued a grim outlook for 2013.

Hewlett-Packard extended the previous day's decline, after getting hammered on Wednesday. The stock has had a rough year, sinking more than 40% so far. That makes HP the worst Dow (INDU) performer by far this year.

In fact, it's been a tough couple of years for HP as the company struggles to stay MORE

We live in a world where people wonder if relatively new companies like Google (GOOG) and Facebook (FB) have already matured. So it's refreshing to see that IBM (IBM), a tech company that just celebrated its 100th anniversary last year, is now trading an all-time high. Take that you young Silicon Valley whippersnappers!

Big Blue isn't growing as rapidly as many other tech companies. But its earnings are steady and dependable. MORE